Top 5 Best Free MS Outlook Add-ons to Boost Email Productivity

Outlook, the most popular email and personal organizer client in the market today makes life so much easier but there is always space for improvement or rather customization and Outlook add-ons allow owners to do just that. With so many add-ons in the market competing for dominance, we have shortlisted five that are the best at what they do. Some help organize contacts better, automate specific functions, build categories or act as spam and threat filters.

1. Turbo Add-in Package for Outlook

The Turbo Add-in Package is a combination of a plethora of tools that automate many of the processes that otherwise would take a long time. Reply To All, Attachment Reminder, Always BCC, Remover, Save as PDF, Remove Subject Prefix, Follow Up Reminder, Duplicate Note Remover, Send Individually, Duplicate Contact Remover and Task Remover are just a few of the available functions of the Turbo Add-in Package for Outlook.

2. Jello Dashboard

Another GTD for Outlook, Jello Dashboard helps work with Outlook data, organizing it into lists using tags, managing tags and system hierarchy. It manages the inbox quick and easy while collecting bulk information and seeing important information with widgets on homepage. Make, send and get lists done, control Outlook’s behavior using user extensive settings. All data and user preferences are directly saved in Outlook and can be backed up or transferred.

Pros: Fast and Easy, intuitive, works on locked office computers as well.

Cons: None

OS: Windows 8, 7 32-bit and 64-bit, Vista, XP, 2000 and 98

3. PocketKnife Peek

With PocketKnife Peek you can screen emails in plain text mode before actually opening them in Outlook. This particular add-on lets you view any form of Outlook message in text mode and remove the link of accidentally allowing a threat entry into your system. With a tabbed view mode, it helps view everything from the HTML, internet header, source and even attachments in plain text mode. Now screen all incoming messages covert them to HTML codes and review them in Notepad or other free apps before actually allowing them entry into your system.

Pros: Sandboxes all incoming mails, see everything before actually opening.

Cons: Limited functionality.

OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7

4. Categorize Plus for Outlook

Categorize Plus is available as a free add-on for Outlook as well as in the Lite, Standard and the Pro edition. With the free edition it works like a normal category editor to quickly edit and categorize any incoming mail or item. This can also be docked in the navigator, item list or to-do bar. In the free edition you can also assign specific actions to the categories automating specific functions. It also comes with an auto categorization process by subject.

5. Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010

Business Contact Manager is an add-on only for Outlook 2010 that lets small businesses manage and store calenders, contacts and plenty of other details as a business owner would. Instead of grouping all contacts as personal, now have the chance to keep business contacts entirely separate with greater degree of accessibility and accountability.